Workmen's advocate., 1887-05-14

right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and this law is superior to the laws of Church or State.
 We have already seen that man is land animal who has been placed here to root and scratch and dig living out of the soil. A hundred years ago a Christian minister, God save the word made a statement that there was d 'beneticent" law of nature which keeps down the population by means of fam ines, wars and pestilence, but I tell you the more the merrier, the larger the pop ulation the easier it will be to get living The trouble now is that the upper classes monopolize so much that there is but | little hope for the masses. This is the reason that we hear so much about re- stricting emigration and the number of apprentices to any trade.
 Every man has right to enough land to supply his needs, but no man has any title to more than enough for his own use. While, as the newspapers de- clare, we want the earth, we are not such fools as to think that we all can occupy every part of, but we want joint ownership.
 Possession and ownership are widely different things. When building is erected on leased land the possession is in the hands of one and the ownership in the hands of another, and this is just what we want to bring about, Let the ownership reside in the community but | give the possession for eternity, if you wish, to an individual and his heirs. Rent is not a bad thing in itself, the trouble is that we are paying it to the wrong persons. The community alone can own the land and exact rent. When people begin to gather together, then the land takes on a value far beyond what it is worth for agriculture. This value is called "the unearned increment" unearned because the owner did not | give it the increased value by his own efforts. There was time when the whole of Manhattan Island whereon the city of New York now stands, was bought for S24, and here the other day land on it was sold at the rate of $4, ,00O,- 900 an acre. It was the gathering of three or four millions of people that circle in and around the city of New York which caused this great enhancement in value, and to the people should belong the bene- fit and not to the grandson great grand son of some Dutch market gardener who gained his title by planting cabbages 150 years ago.
 If the system of private ownership in land is allowed to stand we may say in rough way that when the population shall have increased fifty times, rent will be fifty times higher and the favored few will own the earth and be able to say to the masses "Get off our land" And where can they go, when not foot of the wide world is theirs to stand upon 1? This reductio dd dbsurd,m shows that the system is unjust. It is not to any one man that rent shall be paid, but to the community which makes the land of value.
 The money so gained would result in many more benefits to the people than they now enjoy. When Henry George said that the people of New York could have free street railroads and elevated roads people thought he was joking but he was never more in earnest in his life. Another good result would be the utter abolishment of taxes. You may say that the public revenue under our proposed system would be tax, but it wouldn't. It would be rent and rent only.
 may as well be frank and say that necessary corollary would be absolute free trade throughout the world. Any speculation in land, food products or anything else, would be utterly impossi- ble.